Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Well, I guess one could say that today was the beginning of the end... Maddie started her Senior year of high school and Josie began the First Grade.

Maddie's school has so many events and deadlines for the Seniors that they issued an on-line 'Senior Book'. James and I have already attended the 'College Night' meeting in which the school presented THEIR deadlines for requesting transcripts and letters of recommendation from teachers for college applications. The counselors also advised us that our Seniors should have narrowed down their list of colleges to 6 but no more than 10. Ooops! Maddie still has 16 colleges on her list. Guess we need to get on the ball with that!

Senior portraits were taken in late July. These are the standard Cap & Gown/fake drape photos that will be used for the yearbook. They turned out 'so-so' and are prohibitively expensive to order. The smallest package available started at $310. If one wanted to order 'a la carte' it was basically about $80 per 8.5x11 sheet. Wow! Don't remember my senior photos being that expensive, even with the adjustment of the dollars value 30 years ago!! Anyway, we'll order just 2 8x10s for the grandparents and one 5x7 for us. Something that is different out here in California is that the seniors have 'candid' photos done as well. These candids are the ones that the kids exchange in wallet size and parents have made into portraits instead of the Cap & Gown photos. We were really lucky to find Susie Kim, an extremely artistic college student who works as a photographer in her time away from school. We had over 200 shots to pick from and these are my favorites:

And here is Maddie leaving for her first day of her senior year:

As for our little Josie... she was so excited about starting the First Grade that she came into our room at 5:30AM! She informed me that if I didn't get up and make her breakfast she would be late to school. Ummm, I don't think so, little one! We had laid out her clothes the night before, packed up her backpack with the items from the school supply list and even remembered to put her name on her lunchbox. (I have a feeling that there will be quite a few Princess lunch boxes among her classmates!) The school did not post class assignments until yesterday afternoon (4PM). Josie is familiar with her new teacher so she's got a leg up on James and I already! She seemed happy about her class, having found quite a few of her kindergarten friends are in the same room as her.

I can't believe my precious, petite angel is off to full-time school! I didn't cry - but actually felt so very proud of our Josie. At one time she was so shy she would hide behind my legs when she met people. This morning she was polite and outgoing - shaking hands with her new teacher and greeting her friends enthusiastically with hugs and smiles! She has grown so much! And, I'm sure that she will give us so much more to be proud of in the years to come! Here's a few photos from Josie's first day:

Proud Dad with his Girls!

Best Wishes to everyone for this new school year. I hope its wonderful for all of us!

About Me

I'm Michele - East Coast born & bred. Married to a native Californian, Mom to two East Coast daughters. When a new job opportunity came up, I told my darling husband, - "You'll have to drag me to California, Kicking and Screaming". And so began our newest adventure...
This blog documents our move from the beautiful Virginia countryside to Southern Orange County, California.